Take a look at Acts chapter one. In verse three it mentions the resurrection of Jesus. How He was seen by many people for a forty day period after He was visibly seen crucified and dead. There were many occurrences during these forty days where He was seen, spoken to and even touched and held. It was infallible proof that He was alive. One time there were over five hundred that seen Him at once (1 Cor. 15).

The chapter goes on to tell us of His last words that He spoke to them as this profound forty day period was coming to a close. He tells them to wait upon the promise of the Father, the Holy Spirit, that He will give them as they wait upon Him. Jesus promised them that as the Holy Spirit comes He would would give them power to be living witnesses of Him and His kingdom. This promise of the Holy Spirit indeed came. You can read more about that in Acts chapter two.

Then the promise of His return comes in the next few verses, verses nine through eleven. As they were gathered around Him and listening to Him, He was taken up into the clouds and left their sight. Notice He didn’t suddenly vanish. He levitates, ascends, goes up right in front of them into the sky until they can see Him no more. They are stunned and awestruck! So much so that they all stand there for some time starring up into the sky. Can you imagine what’s going on in their minds!?

What happens next is that they’re taken to school. They are getting ready to learn a new piece of information. Verses ten and eleven breaks it down for us. Two angels appear beside them and give information that this Jesus, whom they watched go up into the sky and out of their sight, will come again similar to the way they saw Him depart. He’s not going to suddenly appear as if a ghost who pops out behind a door. He’s coming in the sky as a real Man who is God.

His promise is to return. His Word has declared it. His angels have declared it. He Himself spoke of that day. Listen to Jesus from Matthew twenty-four, “…all the people of the earth will see the Son of Man (Jesus) coming on the clouds of the sky with power and great glory.” That sounds like what the angels speak of in Acts. He’s coming in the sky and everyone will once and for all clearly know that the truth about Him was real. He is God. He is truth. He is the way, the truth and the light to all of mankind. He alone has words that lead to life. 

I was immediately brought back to the Fall of 2006 when our twin daughters, Charli and Ali, died not too many days after my wonderful wife gave birth to them. By far our “worst storm.” As I sang the chorus and witnessed so many people across the room agree with its truth I too was overcome by the greatness and tenderness of Jesus. How He carries me, loves me and leads me so well. Indeed He carried us in that season.

I remember the pain of those months, weeks and days leading up to their birthday, November 1. The uncertainty was awful. We were contending for their healing the best we could and knew how. Yet maybe we would be taking care of two completely dependent kids with severe disabilities. Or even worse, maybe we would we be forced to live without them completely as death was seeking to take them. Those doctor appointments week after week leading up to their birth were like being tied to a pole and beaten with a rubber hose. Yet worse because the pain went to a depth in the heart and soul that words can’t do justice to explain.

Yet in the midst of the chaos there He was. The presence of God on so many occasions during that time was so precious. Answers may have been absent but peace and comfort was like a blanket that caused our minds and hearts to be still and rest. The fact that we were not able to be offended at God baffled us. We were offended that we weren’t offended. You see, He carried us. He didn’t leave. He carried us.

God is a Person. He’s not just a thought or a historical figure stuck in a book. Jesus is real. He’s alive and well and carries us through our worst storms…if we’ll call on Him. That my testimony about Jesus.

Wes

The first passage that moves me to pray for Israel is in Isaiah 62. In verse 6 the Lord directs His attention specifically to those who are believers in Jesus and who “make mention of the Lord.” God says to those of us who pray and mention His name to “not keep silent” and “give Him no rest” until He makes Jerusalem, the city of David, the city of Israel, a praise in all the earth. This is a command.

The Bible commands us to not keep silent in our speech concerning the promises of God over the city of Jerusalem and the people of Israel. We are to use our speech to stir up people to stand with God’s purposes for Israel. And we are to use our speech as we give God no rest in the place of prayer. God has great things in His heart for this people and for this city (Jeremiah 3:17)! So much that He promises Israel in Isaiah 62 that He will raise up ones that will not keep silent concerning them as a people and the promises of God over their nation.

We’re believing for God to raise up 100 million intercessors that will pray weekly for the promises of God in Israel and the city of Jerusalem.

The second passage I turn to is Matthew 23:39. Jesus looks over the city of Jerusalem and says that they will not see Him again in their city until they say “Blessed is he who comes in the name of the Lord.” So this second reason why I pray for Israel is an easy one. I want Jesus to return. Jesus won’t come back until there is a reception of Him as King of kings and Lord of lords in the city of Jerusalem. He will hold to His word and He will not come until the leadership of Israel believes that those who come in the name of the Lord Jesus are truly blessed of God.

In light of this passage it is no mystery of why world history has endured such anti-Israel sentiment. Satan knows this passage. He knows God will honor His Word. So we see his scheme of attempting to wipe out the Jewish race altogether. If there is no Israel, then this passage cannot be fulfilled. However there is no man, no demon, not even Satan himself that can stop the Word of God. Nero couldn’t do it in the Roman Empire, Hitler couldn’t do it in Nazi Germany, the radical Islamic world will too be unsuccessful. God will save all of Israel and they will receive Jesus as their true Redeemer and Messiah.

So a quick recap of why we pray for Israel.

Point 1: the Bible commands us in Isaiah 62:5 to not keep silent and give Him no rest concerning His purposes for them

Point 2: Jesus will not return until the nation of Israel receives Him at His own claims of being their King and Savior

Hope this helps. To hear this more I have an audio message on the Resources Page.

Wes

On Friday night as Benji Nolot preached Psalm 27:4 and called us to intimacy with God even in the midst of the assault of Satan in a growing culture of lust I saw hope, conviction and redemption building up in the hearts of the nearly 2,000 packed out crowd. Benji went on to give the charge to call out to Jesus for forgiveness, healing and restoration from any sexual assault that may have victimized anyone or immorality at work in their life. The altar area was packed for over an hour with weeping, prayer, repentance and deliverance. Lives were changed as the love of God met them and the Holy Spirit was present to empower them in righteousness and happy holiness.

Another highlight to me was the response to plant prayer furnaces on high school and college campuses. Jesus met us Saturday night during the main session and the majority of the crowd was moved with a spirit of prayer as we began to pray for revival in the schools of New Jersey. As we prayed for the various student-bodies, school clubs, faculties, superintendents the Lord stirred up hundreds of students and teachers to plant prayer furnaces all over New Jersey during this upcoming school year. God send revival to New Jersey!

Following the conference the team and I ministered at the newly planted Eastern Gate House of Prayer Missions Base. The Lord has spoken to them about establishing night and day worship and prayer and in a very short amount of time they have encountered great favor. A facility was given to them and they are actively pursuing worship teams in various languages such as Korean and Spanish so that various people groups in the New Jersey area can come to worship and pray at various times throughout the week.

Overall our weekend was a great success. I was stirred anew in my spirit and look to see what God will continue to do in that region.

Pray for the church in New Jersey; that God will raise up His church with power and  might that Jesus would be glorified.

Be blessed,

Wes

I believe the Lord has something powerful in His heart to release in the NE. I’ve been reflecting on onething NYC that we had back in April. The Lord is totally up to something. I think there may be a fresh outpouring of power and Holy Spirit miracles coming to all the NE of the U.S.  God is zealous for Philadelphia, Boston, NYC, etc. He is bigger than the intellectual arrogance against His name and against His ways. There will be a bright and shining witness come forth. Let’s pray for this, according to His heart.

Pray for us as the weekend approaches. The Events team and most of the band leaves out on Thursday and the rest of us leave out early on Friday. The conference starts 7pm, Friday night.

Much love and thanks,

Wes

He has a perfect destiny for us. He thinks of it often and has great zeal for us to walk into all that He has for us. He wants this for my life way more than I do. This brings confidence to my heart; that my Leader has greater zeal than I do for me to finish the course of life and arrive at all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:19).

This hope and future that is spoken of in Jeremiah is awakened in us when we’re first born again. We exclaim to everyone, “God has a plan for me! My life matters! I’m important to God!”  We have been awakened to bigger plans, higher wisdom and the knowledge of God.

As I think of His leadership and how He molds and fashions us into this plan and brings us to being the most fruitful in our love and work I’m stunned with how He does it. It’s so “upside down” and so different compared to our natural way of doing life and leadership.

Consider this verse in 2 Corinthians 12:9-10…My strength is made perfect in weakness.  Therefore most gladly I will rather boast in my infirmities (weaknesses) that the power of Christ may rest upon me. 10 … For when I am weak then I am strong (NKJ). The Message reads it like this, The weaker I get, the stronger I become.

This is a powerful verse. Think about it. The strength of Jesus is made perfect upon us in the place of embracing weakness. Beloved this is His destiny for us. This is what He would have for us. This is His perfect future and the hope He has for us referenced from Jeremiah. It’s within our reach, to walk in the perfect strength and hope of Christ.

So what about this “weakness”? What’s that about? The weakness that Paul is speaking of is not moral weakness. He’s rather speaking of a weakness that causes humility, dependency, and poverty of spirit. In Matthew 6 Jesus speaks of many godly choices that will cultivate weakness into us. They include fasting, prayer, giving, blessing and living simple.

Inevitably, if these choices are embraced on a consistent basis, weakness will be a part of our life. It’s in this weakness that God leads us into greatness and fullness of His might.  He molds us and perfects His strength upon us. Each choice is a form of fasting, in that we are voluntarily embracing weakness by submitting our strengths into God’s hands and trusting Him to answer us His way, in His time and in His power.

In giving, we fast our money, which is our financial strength. In serving and prayer, we are fasting our time and energy, investing it in others and in time to pray. In blessing those who offend us, we fast words and reputation. Fasting from food is not primarily a call to hunger but to physical weakness. We must embrace these choices long term. No one graduates from this lifestyle.

Remind yourself; God’s strength is made perfect in weakness. His power WILL rest upon me in the place of embracing godly weaknesses. This reminder motivates us to embrace weakness instead of avoiding it.

His leadership is “upside down” and different. Take fasting food for example. You go without food for a day or two and about midday of that 2^nd day your foggy in the head.  You can’t collect your thoughts well. You fumble your words. You have a headache and you’re agitated easily. All you can think about is eating some food so you can attain strength and function like you know you can do. This is the point. We’re challenged in our pride and in our own strength.

We think that we’ll be “better” in life if we can just remain in “our” strength. God’s leadership requires a different approach. He says to me, “Actually Wes, you’ll be a better leader, a better husband and a better father when you embrace weakness so that My strength may be your strength.” At that moment I’m confronted with the way He leads.  He leads me into weakness and as I embrace it I come out strong.

Upside down isn’t it?  He says in 1 Corinthians 1:27 God has chosen the foolish things of the world to put to shame the wise and God has chosen the weak things of the world to put to shame the things which are mighty.  Fasting food, praying to an invisible God who already knows what I’m going to say, speaking only blessing to those that mock and hate me, giving my time and energy when there’s no benefit to me, all these are “so-called foolish things and weak things” yet God calls them the mighty and wise ways of His Kingdom.

In our weakness, He will perfect and lead us into His power and strength. His leadership is masterful.

Consider this.

Be blessed,

Wes

It’s not enough to know about poverty of spirit, meekness or purity of heart. We must become poor in spirit, be meek people and purify our hearts and minds before God. It’s not enough to know about mercy, we are to be merciful people. As we mature in these beatitudes it will lead us to having great impact in the world (Matthew 5:13-14). Always remember that your lifestyle in and of itself will be the greatest witness that comes from you. Your words will avail very little if your lifestyle does not reflect what you speak of.One of the beatitudes speaks of being pure in heart, Matthew 5:8 Blessed are the pure in heart for they shall see God. Consider what God says about those that are indeed found pure in heart. Jesus says they shall see God! What a profound reward for those who cultivate a pure heart before Jesus. This is a provoking invitation and calling.

Purity of heart is the place of intimate communion where God is the greatest reward to the human heart. It is the focused gaze of love with the purest motive of serving and obeying Jesus. Purity of heart has to do with the things that motivate our actions. It has more to do with why we do the things we do than it has to do with what we actually do. It is the purifying of the inward place where fleshly desires have corrupted us.

Jesus says the ones that purify their hearts will be rewarded, they shall see God. What does He mean by this? I’m sure there’s an ocean of meaning that I have yet to discover but I do believe one of the areas He’s speaking of is the revelation of God as we study His Word. In Ephesians 1:17 Paul prays that we would receive a spirit of revelation in the knowledge of God. He’s praying that God, by His Spirit, would reveal God to our minds and hearts as we pursue Him.

Did you know that to the degree that we purify our minds and hearts before God there is a direct impact on the revelation of God we receive in prayer and study? I tell students all the time that the purity of our hearts and minds or lack of greatly enables or disables our Bible study. I long to purify my mind and heart and rid the things that would taint me so that I would be able to see God as I search for Him in His Word. As we set our hearts and minds to pursue and embrace purity we attract the blessing of our Father to see Him. This is the promise of the beatitude.

There are many fronts that we must wage war in regards to sin as we seek to purify our heart. One of the fronts I want to highlight is our speech. Scripture informs us of the connection of our mouth and speech to the purity of heart (Proverbs 22:11, 15:26, Psalm 12:6, Matthew 5:22, 15:11, 18, 1 Timothy 4:12, 5:1-2).

Mostly I am thinking of the spirit in which we speak. Of course we are to abstain from filthy words (Colossians 3:8). But there’s more than just not saying bad words that can taint our hearts. When we speak in the wrong spirit towards or about someone we are sowing in the flesh and will reap corruption of the heart (Galatians 6:8). The sowing and reaping principle applies to our speech. It is critical that we resist the flesh in regards to our speech. Jesus taught us to speak in the opposite spirit, to bless and pray for our enemies. As we do this we are guarding and cultivating purity in the inward place of our heart before Jesus.

The rule that I have always operated by in regards to my speech is that if I cannot speak in a godly spirit to or about a person or situation I don’t speak at all. I take my offense to God and hash it out with Him. He has the ability to change my heart about a situation and give me wisdom to speak into it if it’s necessary.

Beloved the promise from God is that we’ll see God and grown in our revelation of Him as we radically pursue purity of heart. There’s no greater experience for us than when God reveals God to the human spirit. When He touches me with revelation of who He is I’m exhilarated in my love for Him and in my joy to be alive. Let us continue on in this journey of life while committing to be a people pure in heart.

God give us grace today to reach and press into Your calling of being pure. Give us grace to resist sin and embrace righteousness. We can not do this in our own strength and striving. It takes God to love and obey God. Holy Spirit help us. I will do my part and resist sin and operate in a godly spirit. I will be quick to repent when I stumble and I will fill my mind and heart with Your Word. Thank you for Your perfect leadership Jesus.

Be blessed,
Wes

A highlight for me personally was that I got to speak at Jack Deere’s church Sunday morning. When I was born again 13 years ago there were two teachers that I immediately began to follow and listen to (cassette tapes back then) The two teachers were Mike Bickle and Jack Deere. So sitting there in the front row yesterday morning with Jack Deere a few seats down as I prepared to preach was so awesome and humbling. I cried several times during the worship time as I reflected on the Lord’s kindness and mercy in my life and bringing me along as He has so gently.   There are many believers there in the DFW area laboring in the place of prayer, fasting and worship. They are very sincere and are longing for a mighty breakthrough of God in that city. One of the houses of prayer hosted us for the weekend known as The Prayer Room of DFW. They served our team so well and went above and beyond in their hospitality and labor for the conference. I pray that they reap musicians, singers and intercessors for the labor of building persistent prayer and worship!

I spent some time with the leadership team on Saturday afternoon, saw their current prayer room, the new facility they’re looking to get into very soon and an inside peak of their weekly labor that has been going on for over 5 years. I was so impressed with their steadfast spirit and willingness to give their strength, time and money to building a place where Jesus is praised and adored 24/7 which is their goal.

As I sat with them the word I was sensing from the Lord was faithfulness. Over and over my heart was moved with compassion as I could sense God’s heart for them and a phrase that He was saying over them. That phrase: “you are being faithful in what I’ve called you to do, you are faithful, you are faithful, you are faithful…”

Many times we think that the Lord isn’t really with us in our attempts of ministry until the ministry gets big with tons of people, cool websites, everyone talking about it, etc. Sometimes we think that God’s favor only looks big, visible, growing and thriving. Well for this group of leaders that hasn’t been the case. Their ministry with The Prayer Room of DFW has mostly remained small with not many knowing about them. Many could easily say that God’s favor must not be with them or the Lord isn’t really taking them serious. They are unmoved by this in their reach and work for God.

The Lord is watching during these times of smallness more than we may think. These times matter to God, matter dramatically actually. These are the times we prove our sincerity, our true heart to serve and love God and God alone. These are the times for us to show God that with our without the attention of the crowds, the buzz of the community or excitement for the next meeting we’re going to stay steady continuing on in what He has called us to do.

As I sat with the team and heard of their day in and day out labor of prayer meetings with only a few in the room, at hard times of the day my heart was bursting with the word of the Lord for them! The Lord sees, the Lord knows our labor, He’s watching and He is so moved when we stay steady and remain faithful during the small times. When it’s small He is with us! When it’s hard He is with us! These times matter to God.

Stay steady in what He’s called you to do no matter what the external may look like. If God has called you to it, that’s enough. We work hard, labor with steadiness because Jesus is worthy of the labor of our love.

Be blessed,

Wes